Originally posted by Viper52:
Hmmm...now that bar-top dancing has not torn Singapore
apart, as predicted by one of our million dollar, world class
ministers, maybe 13-minute satires on the system might cause
Singapore to implode. 
I seriously think that if some of our Ministers kept their yaps
shut, they might be able to maintain the illusion that they are
actually worth the king's ransom we pay them....
-----------------------------------------------
Friday March 26, 9:39 AM
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040326/3/3j1w2.html
[b]Singapore says satire on censorship not funny
By Jacqueline Wong
SINGAPORE, March 26 (Reuters) - A cinematic spoof on Singapore's
strait-laced film censors could be censored itself, underscoring
the limits to loosening stuffy social controls in a country known
for decades as Asia's "nanny state".
Royston Tan, a young film-maker whose first full-length feature
about drugs and delinquency won international plaudits last year,
is courting controversy even before his latest film "Cut" hits the
screens.
The 13-minute satire, due to open the Singapore International Film
Festival in April, is about a film buff who has a chance encounter
in a supermarket with a censorship board official and explodes into
a rant on films the board has cut.
The government, which has poured millions of dollars into
developing a film industry and nurturing local talent, is not
laughing. One minister said in parliament the film could sap
Singapore's institutions.
"The producer may think it is funny, but I'm afraid that I don't
appreciate such unbecoming attempts to undermine the standing of a
public institution," said Lee Boon Yang, minister for information,
communications and the arts.
The film comes at a delicate time for Singapore as it takes
tentative steps at relaxing censorship laws that now ban Playboy
magazine, routinely clip racy scenes from movies and scissor drug
references from pop cultural magazines.
Despite recent steps to loosen some of Singapore's stuffier laws,
such as adopting a new film ratings system to give young adults
more access to mature content and allowing bars to stay open for 24
hours in some parts of the city of four million, state film
censorship remains pervasive.
Kate Winslet's disrobing scene in the film "Titanic" was deemed too
daring. Scenes of women kissing each other in the award-winning
film "The Hours" were also cut, as was a brief glimpse of nudity in
recent Oscar honoree "Lost in Translation".
The cuts are easily noticeable, giving movie scenes a disjointed
feel. On occasion films are banned outright.
"Zoolander", starring Ben Stiller as a model dragged into a plot to
kill Malaysia's prime minister, was barred in 2002.
A ban on "Sex and the City", the hit U.S. television sitcom about a
quartet of single women in New York, was lifted last September, but
the show has yet to air in Singapore. Officials say they need more
time to ensure citizens are not offended.
Residents say they expect this to mean parts of "Sex and the City"
will still be censored.
DEVELOPING NEW EXPORTS
Ministers are banking on entrepreneurship, technological innovation
and the arts to power the next stage of the country's economic
development. But, as the furore over "Cut" illustrates, building up
film-making is not friction-free for the government.
Lee, the arts minister, told parliament that "making fun" of the
censorship board would not prompt the government to change its
rules "to suit the agenda of those with vested interests".
Industry sources say some state-funded art institutions have
started to distance themselves from Tan, a 27-year-old film-maker
who was hailed last year as one of the brightest new lights in
Singapore's nascent movie industry.
Tan, whose film "15" about drugs and delinquency won a standing
ovation at the Venice Film Festival last year, said he had hoped
"Cut" would spark a constructive dialogue about censorship. He said
it was not meant to be malicious.
"It's not that I wanted to tear down the system or something like
that. I believe in the system, but we can improve on it," Tan told
Reuters.
"I really think it's constructive," Tan said of his film. He said
he was merely voicing an opinion through the medium he knows
best.
Film buffs are concerned that an exhibition of Tan's work at the
Singapore History Museum will not be shown in April.
A spokeswoman for the museum said the timing of his planned
retrospective clashed with the city state's film festival.
The fate of "Cut" also hangs in the balance as the film festival
organisers wait to learn how the satire will be rated.
"It's a matter of waiting to see what it is," said Vinita Ramani,
the festival's publicist. "The policy has always been that if the
film is going to be proposed passed with cuts, we don't show
it."
Lee's ministry played down talk of a backlash against the
film-maker. Another of his films, commissioned by the museum, would
be shown there until 2006.
"We will continue to tap all creative talents to help us make
Singapore an interesting and vibrant place," the spokeswoman said.
[/b]
another proof of the stiffness and inability to luff at
oneself.
